Today, different types of devices are available for receiving and playing out a TV service, including a so-called “Set Top Box”, STB, which receives digital TV signals and decodes the signals for playout on a playing entity typically comprising a viewing screen and a loudspeaker system. The TV service may be received as broadcasted signals over the air or as a media stream delivered through a cable based on the Internet Protocol IP thus forming a fixed IPTV link, the latter option being commonly referred to as “IPTV” for short. The TV service can be delivered from a TV service provider either by means of a broadcasting satellite or terrestrial antenna in the case of delivery over the air, or by means of an IPTV server or the like in the case of delivery over a fixed IPTV link. In the latter case, the TV service may be delivered as a multicast service to multiple receivers at the same time or as a unicast service to a single receiver at a time.
Some types of devices for receiving TV services have dual functionality and are capable of receiving the TV service both as broadcasted signals over the air and as a media stream over a digital IPTV link, which may be referred to as a hybrid TV solution and a dual mode device. If both delivery methods are available, it is generally most economical to receive the TV service as broadcasted signals over the air since the other alternative of receiving a media stream over IPTV link is associated with additional costs for transporting data over a distribution network comprising the fixed IPTV link. Depending on the capacity of that distribution network, it may sometimes be heavily loaded with bandwidth consuming data traffic or may even become congested, particularly if many users are watching TV at the same time with high resolution requiring a high data throughput for each user over the IPTV link.
However, the first option of receiving the TV service as broadcasted signals over the air may sometimes be subjected to deteriorated playout quality due to weak signal reception which may be caused by “bad” weather such as during heavy rains, snow or storms when the signals undergo severe losses when travelling from the broadcasting TV station to the receiving user's antenna. In some cases, the signal may even be completely lost such that the TV service is interrupted and the TV screen goes blank.
A typical reaction amongst users when the TV service quality goes down is to reboot the TV equipment, e.g. STB, in an attempt to regain better signal reception and quality. This reboot operation involves communication of configuration data with a server of the TV service provider and requires also some processing by the server, and if several users try to reboot their STBs at the same time, the server may become overloaded and may not be able to deliver its services properly. Typically, this reboot operation does not help when the received signals are too weak or too distorted anyway. It is thus a problem that users receiving a TV service over the air may experience bad quality or even interrupted service during conditions when the signal propagation is disturbed, e.g. by bad weather. It is also a problem that this situation may result in overloading the TV service provider's server due to many reboot operations at roughly the same time.